GRANTS PANEL COULD USE A SOLOMON

When the McHenry County Community Development Block Grant Commission meets in Woodstock on Thursday, it will need the wisdom of Solomon and some thick skin too.

More than 20 applicants are asking for a piece of the $1.2 million pie distributed by the commission under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The requests total more than $2.7 million.

"It's a tough job, especially since I know how hard these people work to raise money for their organizations," said Lou Ness, commission member and executive director of Turning Point, a Woodstock domestic-violence shelter and counseling service.

Ness and her 16 colleagues on the commission heard presentations over a four-week period on projects ranging from a dental clinic, infrastructure improvements in various municipalities, assistance for owners of small businesses and the hiring of a site coordinator for a group called Public Action to Deliver Shelter.

This is the second year the federal grant money was made available to the county to assist residents with low or moderate incomes and to eliminate slums and blight.

"Now, we don't have a lot of slums in McHenry County, so what we are doing is benefiting low and moderate incomes," said John Labaj, a commission member and deputy director of the county's Planning Department.

The commission has the task of recommending which applicants should be funded and for how much. Its recommendations will be forwarded to the County Board for final approval.

Some of the criteria the commission will use include: How likely is the applicant to complete the project, based on past performance? Are there other funding sources? How many low- and moderate-income residents will benefit from the project?

This year's requests were more in line with the money available, Labaj said.

"Some of the applicants that requested $800,000 or $900,000 last year realized the philosophy of the commission was not to fund one applicant but to fund as many worthwhile projects as possible," he said.

One new question posed to applicants this year was whether they would be able to complete their projects if they receive grants amounting only to partial funding.

When Connie Diaz, director of nursing for the county's Health Department, went before the commission last week to discuss a dental clinic that would primarily serve children and some adults on Medicaid, she said the clinic would be open only part time if just a portion of the $133,000 requested was awarded.

The City of Harvard submitted an application for $270,000 to bring water and sewer lines to a proposed development on its west side as an incentive to attract manufacturers and create jobs.

City Administrator Dave Nelson said businesses' development costs would be reduced if the water main were already built.

"Any amount that's awarded . . . is a direct benefit to those companies that locate out there," Nelson said.

The commission also is trying to eliminate duplication of services by various applicants.

"When you have everybody coming after that money, and everybody wanting to hire people and setting up the same kind of office, I have a problem with that," said Jim Allen, a commissioner who also is president of the McHenry County Economic Development Corp.

Ness said she did not see duplication of services from this year's applicants because case workers with agencies such as Senior Services Associates target a specific population.

Last year, three organizations came to the commission each with a proposal to establish a provider network linking different agencies that help the homeless and unemployed. Later in the application process, the organizations combined on a single proposal that was taken before the commission by the Salvation Army, Ness said.

That's the kind of consolidation that needs to be done to concentrate the funds where they are best needed, Allen said.

No matter how the grant money ends up being distributed, it will make the county become more aware of its working poor, Ness said.